NATURAL HISTORY. 
143 
ROOM IV.] 
pectoral, and no ventrals. They are collected on the shores of Lake 
Baikal dead after storms, to make oil. 
The family of Platypteres (Platypterlile) have the large separate 
ventrals of the former, a short broad head, with open gill-flaps, large 
scales, a small mouth, and two short distant dorsal fins. They live 
in the mountain rivers of Asia. 
The Remorse (Echeneisidje) have been referred to the soft-finned, 
subbrachian fishes. They are known by the top of the head being 
flattened, and furnished with transverse series of cartilaginous plates, 
(somewhat similar to the plates under the toes of the Gecko,) by which 
these fish attach themselves to ships, rocks, and marine bodies. Agas¬ 
siz considers this disk as a modification of the spinous front dorsal fin. 
The family of Labrax (Chirusid^e) have an elongated body co¬ 
vered with large ciliated scales, with several series of pores, as if they 
had several lateral lines; the head is small unarmed, the mouth small, 
and an elongated dorsal, supported by thin rays; their ventrals have five 
soft rays. They come from Kamschatka. 
The family of Anglers (Lophihle) have many characters in com¬ 
mon with the former, but they have the bones of the carpus or wrist 
elongated, so that the pectoral fin appears to be placed on an arm. 
Their skeleton is very soft, nearly cartilaginous, and their skin desti¬ 
tute of scales. They are very voracious, and from the small size of the 
opening of the gills, can live a long time out of the water. 
The common Angler (JLopkius piscatorius) has an enormous, flat¬ 
tened head, forming the chief bulk of the fish, and a tail so com¬ 
pressed on each side that the creature seems composed of little else 
than head and tail. On the former, before the eyes, are two long 
rays, or filaments, of a horny substance, and four others, of a similar 
nature, but shorter, on the back, and the lower jaw is furnished with 
numerous vermicular appendages, or tentacula. This animal, accord¬ 
ing to Bloch, conceals itself amongst marine plants, or behind hillocks 
of sand, rocks and stones, when it opens its great mouth, and attracts 
the fish as they swim by, by wriggling the long filaments on its head, 
which they mistake for worms, and attempting to seize them, fall an 
easy prey to their voracious and subtle enemy. The hideous appear¬ 
ance of it’s monstrous, and almost constantly open mouth, well armed 
with teeth, has probably gained for the Angler the vulgar name of Sea 
Devil. The Hand Fish ( Chironectes ) has a compressed head and body, 
a smaller mouth, and the first dorsal fin placed between the eyes. The 
first ray of that fin is often free, and terminates in a series of small ten¬ 
tacula which the fish uses as a bait for taking its prey, after the manner 
of the Angler. It has the faculty of inflating its large stomach with 
air and giving itself the form of a balloon, like several of the Gymnoro- 
dontes * ; and by means of its pedicelled pectoral fins can crawl on 
land; it can exist two or three days out of the water. The Beaked 
Angler ( Malthe) has its head flattened, and the muzzle produced into a 
short horn. 
The Malacopterygians, ( Malacopterygice ,) or soft-finned fish, 
which form the second division of this Class, are characterized by all 
* See p. 146. 
